10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Texas Music

How much do you really know the beloved Texas Country genre? Do you know the ins and outs of your favorite artists? We've gathered 10 crazy facts about this music scene that you may not know:

1.

Billy Joe Shaver shot a man in the face in 2007 outside Papa Joe's Bar in Waco, TX (out of self-defense). He sings about it in Wacko From Waco. Read more about it here!

2.

Charlie Robison and Emily Erwin of The Dixie Chicks were married for 9 years and have 3 beautiful children. They divorced in 2008.

3.

Stewart Mann of Statesboro Revue and guitarist Garrett Mann are literally brothers from another mother.

4.

Jerry Jeff Walker is actually not from Texas, contrary to popular belief. He is actually from New York!

5.

Ray Wylie Hubbard met his wife Judy at Poor David's Pub in Dallas - she was the door girl! You can hear about it in his tune, Mother Blues.

6.

Speaking of Ray Wylie, Sam Riggs' band "Sam Riggs and The Night People" was named after lyrics from Hubbard's tune The Rabbit:

"There's two kinds of people in the world
There's two kinds of people in the world
There's two kinds of people in the world
The day people and the night people.

And it's the night peoples' job
It's the night peoples' job
It's the night peoples' job
To get the day peoples' money"

7.

Merle Haggard's hit Big City was co-written with his bus driver. The driver was ready to get out of town and spouted

"Turn me loose, set me free, somewhere in the middle of Montana"

The two sat down and crafted a tune. Haggard gave full writing credit to his driver.

8.

When Johnny Cash first tried to record for Sun records, Cash pitched himself as a gospel singer. After that didn’t work, he just sat on the steps of the recording studio until he could convince Sam Phillips to listen to his songs.

9.

Willie worked to settled his 1990s IRS tax debt by releasing a double-album called The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories?

10.

George Strait played his first gig at the beloved Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos.